The Stink of the Street
by Eunike
Summary: Eponine tries to make Marius hers for one last time.


This scene takes place right after Thenardier and his men try to break into Valjean's place in Rue Plumet.

The Stink of the Street

Eponine had crouched behind an empty carriage and stared silently at the empty street where the six robbers had stood only seconds earlier. They had now began to go their separate ways, disappearing one by one into to thick darkness, unknown of the fact that they had never escaped under the burning gaze of a female wolf called Eponine. She didn't bare to even blink before the very last bit of Brujon's back was swallowed by the black night, and the street was yet again empty. The silence was broken only by the distant noise of the never-sleeping city, Eponine's own rapidly beating heart, and her heavy, wheezy breathing. She was still strangely excited about what had just happened. It was an odd feeling, as though she had been dreaming or merely watching somebody else stand boldly and so fearlessly against her father. She sighed deeply, letting go of the tension which had kept her alert ever since she had first come out of the shadows back in Rue Plumet. Then she began to wander back.

Eponine hated her father, and she knew very well the feeling was mutual. It wasn't a secret, just one of those things that remained unspoken even in the gutter. Alliance was a necessity to survival even in the darkest place of the earth, and what else could have united people than sharing the same blood? Love? Eponine grimaced. Love didn't exist in the underworld anywhere but in the daydreams of silly little girls' who foolishly still held hope for a better tomorrow. She shook away the thought before having to remind herself that she was still one of them.

Her thoughts wandered back to her family, the Thenardiers. Eponine hated her parents, treated her brother like a stranger, and cared enough about her sister to try to keep her alive. In his own world, Gavroche was an orphan with only the streets of Paris as his brothers and sisters. Azelma was nothing but a phantom; she was just a child and yet she lived only to die, numb to the world which cared little about her fate. Her mother detested her pitiful children, and her father, who now cared only about his own welfare, seemed to have forgotten that he used to love his family. Eponine had long ceased to believe that her parents even loved each other. All of them were just miserable souls trying to find a way to survive in a world that didn't want them, looking for the shelter from one another because no one else would even pity them. Perhaps they could have been called a family.

Eponine, however, had betrayed this family, and lost the last thing that kept her even remotely safe in the harsh underworld of Paris. She had now more enemies than ever, and no one to go to. She surprised herself by not minding her ill condition at all. She had reached a point in her life in which whether she lived or died no longer meant anything to her. When she had had Marius in her dreams, there had been hope. When there had been hope, there had been a chance, and a future, which had once seemed suddenly so light and full of all kinds of wonders within her reach. However, once again, the reality of the world had hit her, making her feel ridiculous and childish for ever even daring to dream of something better. He did not care for her. He never did, and he never would. With that, an odd sense of both crushing despair and maniacal freedom had began to take control of her.

Suddenly, she felt a strong palm grasping her shoulder and got violently dragged into a dark alley she had just walked by. A hand was pressed on her mouth, preventing her to scream. Eponine couldn't see her attacker, but she could easily recognize her father's raspy voice:

"So? The little mademoiselle tried to outwit than her old man, didn't she? Thinking you're better than the rest of us, rat? You spoiled little brat. I always knew you'd be nothing but trouble. I'll teach you how to show some respect to your father!" Thenardier growled, while making sure that they were alone, and then turned his face back to his daughter, lifting her chin to force her to look at him. Perhaps in some other place, or in some other time, Eponine's eyes might have shown slightly fear or a hint regret. Now the only thing that Eponine's blazing gaze implied was cold, strong, sincere hate, which could have made anyone else but him give out a shriek. Though neither one of them could have ever admitted it, they were more alike than one could have even imagine.

Later that evening, Marius was making his way back home from Rue Plumet. The night was starry and beautiful - the kind of night that inspired poets and made romantics dream - but Marius's world couldn't have been stormier. After Cosette had told him that she would leave the country and him forever, a devastating feeling had been following him like the shadow of the grim, and the frustration and distress within him grew. It felt as though someone was gnawing him empty from the inside.

He had just reached the doorsteps of his current place of residence, Courfeyrac's apartment, when he saw something lying next to the wall. It looked like something that might have been a child, possibly a dead one, but since his mind refused to comprehend anything that didn't concern one particular young woman who was about to slip away within reach, he did what every good citizen did when facing the ugly side of life; he looked away, turning a blind eye to the unfortunate thing at his feet, and hurried inside. Just when he was about to close the door behind him, he heard a weak voice calling his name:

"Monsieur Marius!"

Marius looked down at the dark creature. It had spoken to him.

"Who's there?" he asked.

"Eponine, monsieur. I am hurt. It took me ages to get here. Please, pity me and let me in!"

Marius squinted. It was dark, but Marius could recognize Eponine's ghost-like face and thin body, which was covered in the same rags she always wore. He also saw some blood on her face, which stopped him from slamming the door shut and retreating to the apartment alone with his dark thoughts.

Eponine had always made Marius feel uneasy. A part of him pitied her enormously, but another one told him to avoid her, for Eponine never seemed to be ashamed to make him aware of the way she felt about him. That alone made him feel as though granting a mere word to her was near infidelity to the woman he adored with his every fibre. Now, however, the state he saw the poor girl in made his faithfulness to Cosette give in to the pity he felt for Eponine.

He sighed heavily, helped her up, and led her inside feeling too tired to care what the passers-by might have thought of him, and wondering how she had found him in the first place.

Fortunately, Courfeyrac wasn't home that night. Marius felt terribly ashamed for being alone with a strange girl at night even though nobody was watching. He instantly began to regret that he ever let her in, for every single good thing he did to her felt like a crime against Cosette.

Eponine sat on a wooden chair and Marius placed his coat on her shoulders to keep her warm. Then he lit a candle and took a closer look of her wounds, staying as far away from her as he could to keep his conscious pure.

From what he could tell, she wasn't mortally hurt. She had a large cut on her forehead, a cut on her upper lip, and apparently some bruises on her arms, but aside from that, and the half-sane look in her eyes, she seemed fine.

"Who did this to you?" he asked.

"My father", she replied blankly and coughed.

"Why?"

"It doesn't really matter"

"Are you in pain? Is there anything I could make you feel more comfortable?" Marius continued, already regretting that he asked, preparing to blush at she could reply. 

"No, thank you. I'm fine just like this," she replied, much to Marius's relief.

Eponine didn't seem to be on the mood to talk, which wasn't like her. She had covered Marius's coat around her tightly, and stared at the wall blankly without saying a word. She looked like her mind was somewhere else than there. Just when Marius began to feel less uncomfortable, due to her quietness, she suddenly began to speak.

"When I was out there waiting for you... I was tired and hurt and the world was spinning around me. I felt sick and alone and all the people...they just walked pass me. They didn't even spare me a glance. I knew they noticed me, but they just closed their eyes and forgot what they saw. I hate it. I hate it when they close their eyes and pretend they don't see me. I am here. We are here, there are thousands of people just like me, and still they refuse to see. People want to see only things that are beautiful. Then, just before you arrived, I heard an old woman saying: "Whore!" and then she spat at me. What does she know about me? Who gave her the right to treat me like garbage, if she doesn't even know what I am?"

She stopped to cough dryly. Then she stood up and began to walk around the small room furiously.

"I know people who couldn't even see imagine the things I've seen! Oh, yes! I wish they'd live a day of my life! They would die! They can't tell me what I am when they know nothing! They wouldn't believe all the things I've seen, Marius! No, not in a million years, not now, not ever...!"

The last words came out as weak whispers and then she collapsed on the floor, coughing mercilessly. Marius helped her back on the chair. Somehow, her speech hade made him let down his guard of modesty. He bend over her and placed his hands gently on her shoulders.

"Eponine, you don't have to listen to them. You know what you are, and that's all that matters", he said, looking in her eyes warmly.

"Please, say my name! It tells me that you care! That's all that I care of! Please, say it! If only you cared! Then it all would be better, and nothing else would matter", Eponine cried, grasping his hands, which rested on her shoulders, and a weak smile appeared on her face making her look beautiful for one brief moment. Marius's smile instantly and he quickly pulled away from her.

"You can stay here for awhile", he said and turned away from her, "But I insist you leave as soon as possible. You can't spend the night here."

Eponine fell silent. Marius walked to the window and looked outside, trying to shut her from his world.

"I know that I'm ugly", she said quietly, with a hint of bitterness in her hoarse voice, "You cannot bare to even look at me. This is what darkness does to people. I can't help it. I'm drowning, but nobody cares. Not even you."

Marius glanced at her. She looked pitiful. Then, all the sudden, she adapted a dreamy, strange look in her eyes, as though she had just realized something she had not thought of before. She walked up to him, curled her thin arms around his neck, and tried to kiss him. Marius pushed her away carefully yet firmly before their lips ever met. His eyes were cold. For a second she looked devastated, as if she was about to burst into tears, but then she pulled away from her and her face twisted into an ugly mask of bitterness and anger.

"You wouldn't even have me as your whore...!" she hissed. With that, she stormed out without saying another word. For a moment Marius felt as though he should have gone after her, but then realized the foolishness of the thought, and closed the door behind her.


End file.
